{"id":364634,"date":"2026-08-06T20:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T20:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/364634\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T20:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T20:34:09","slug":"affordability-agriculture-top-concerns-for-south-floridas-district-22-hendry-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/364634\/","title":{"rendered":"Affordability, agriculture top concerns for South Florida’s District 22 | Hendry County"},"content":{"rendered":"

LABELLE, Fla. (WINK)\u2014Hendry County voters say agriculture, job opportunities and affordability are their biggest focuses as Florida’s new Congressional District 22<\/a> takes shape.<\/p>\n

The district spans from Marco Island through Hendry County over to the east coast in Broward and Palm Beach counties. The winning candidate will have to represent a lot of ground and diverse interests.<\/p>\n

“What I love about here is that it’s nice and quiet,” said Elvira Pascual, owner of 360 Cafe. “It’s a small town, very familiar. You know everybody.”<\/p>\n

Hendry County<\/a> is one of four South Florida counties voting in the state’s new 22nd Congressional District. Political expert Bethany Conrad from FGCU said voters face unique challenges in such a sprawling district.<\/p>\n

“Voters in a lot of ways have to try to figure out how to make sure that their priorities for their communities are still heard,” Conrad said. “Because in a district like this new District 22 there’s a lot of different local priorities that are going to be competing for attention.”<\/p>\n

Hector Nunez and Pascual opened 360 Cafe in LaBelle about a year ago. Along with coffee orders, Nunez hears a daily dose of different perspectives.<\/p>\n

“I think the most important what people really look for is for being able to pay their bills on time, being able to have economic opportunity and able to live in a safe area,” Nunez said.<\/p>\n

He said economic opportunity and jobs are top concerns for residents.<\/p>\n

“There’s not a lot of opportunities for people here to find employment, open a business,” Nunez said. “It’s still developing here, but I think that’s like really one of the main issues that I see that people are telling me about.”<\/p>\n

Another hot topic is affordability. Pascual pointed to property taxes as a particular burden.<\/p>\n

“I think that they are a little bit too high for, you know, most people that live on the small income that they have in here,” Pascual said.<\/p>\n

Nunez said some priorities in Hendry County may look different than in island communities or Florida’s east coast. The area has a more rural character.<\/p>\n

He hopes that’s just as important to the future leader of District 22 as it is to his Hendry County family, friends and customers.<\/p>\n

“Don’t forget about us little people here, you know, that we’re still trying to make it happen here in a small town like LaBelle,” Nunez said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LABELLE, Fla. (WINK)\u2014Hendry County voters say agriculture, job opportunities and affordability are their biggest focuses as Florida’s new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[146533,28,30,29,29452,6628,807],"class_list":["post-364634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-district-22","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-hendry-county","tag-marco-island","tag-south-florida"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}